Abstract:The Artistic Copyright Bill 1899, presented to the House of Lords by Lord Monkswell, originated with the initiative of the St John’s Wood Arts Club (an artists’ group led by Lawrence Alma-Tadema RA) and the Royal Academy of Arts, advised by the barrister Thomas E. Scrutton. Interesting aspects of the Royal Academy’s proposals are the separate treatment of photographs and ‘casts from nature’ from ‘original works of fine art’, which pervades substantive clauses of the Bill, restrictions on painters producing ‘replicas’ (cl.7(4) and cl.26), and also extensive protection for the owner of the physical painting in the case of commissioned portraits (cl.5).

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